Chapter 32: Sonic blast

[100 EXP Gained]

[10 SP Gained]

I looked at the notifications and felt the familiar pull of the system updating around me.

[Level Up!]

[You are now Level 5]

[4 Stat Points Available]

I opened my stat screen right there, not wanting to wait.

[Stats]

[Name: Tez ______]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Mana: 1000/1000]

[EXP: 0/500]

[Level: 5]

The mana caught my eye first.

"What the hell," I muttered.

A thousand. It had been two hundred when I last checked. I did not know what leveling did to mana in this place but whatever the formula was, I approved of it completely.

I moved to the stat points. Twelve sitting there waiting, eight from before and four new ones, and I had been putting off spending them long enough.

I split them as evenly as I could.

[Stats Updated]

[Strength: 16]

[Speed: 18]

[Stamina: 18]

[Statpoints: 0]

[Skills: Dragon Flames, Persuasion Lv1, Lightning]

I closed the screen and rolled my shoulders.

Something felt different immediately. Not dramatic, not the kind of change you saw in books where the protagonist suddenly became a different person. Just cleaner. The weight of my sword sat more naturally in my hand. The ground beneath my feet felt like something I could use rather than something I was standing on.

"You good?" Regan asked from beside me.

"Yeah," I said. "Just checking something."

I looked at him for a moment. Something had been sitting in the back of my head since he showed up.

"How did you find us?" I asked. "And how did you get here?"

"My party was scouting the floor when the spawner activated."

Regan shrugged. "We split up to cover more ground. The spawner activated and things went sideways fast. Lost a few of them in the chaos."

He said it the way you said something you had already processed and moved past, no weight behind it at all. "Found you from the noise of your fight."

I looked at him for another second.

’Lost a few of them’ he Said like he was reporting on the weather. I found something suspicious about it, something about it did not sit well at all.

I filed it away. Something to think about later.

"Regan."

Another orc appeared at the far end of the corridor.

Then a second came from the left passage.

Then a third.

"Spawner is definitely still active," Regan said, pulling his weapon.

"Mira, Lia," I said. "Same as before. Can you take on one each?"

"You don’t have to worry" Lia replied,

The good aspect of things was the fact that these orcs were far weaker than the first one.

I went straight at mine.

The orc met me halfway, mace already swinging, and the difference in my speed was immediate and noticeable. I cleared the swing with room I had not had before, slipping inside the arc and driving my blade into its side, the black flames following the edge.

It roared and healed.

I moved before the wound finished closing, cutting across its knee from a low angle, then coming back up with a diagonal slash across the chest. Neither wound stayed open long. The healing was fast and consistent and was going to be the problem no matter how many times I landed clean hits.

Heart or head. That was still the answer.

I pressed it anyway, keeping it moving, keeping its attention locked on me and away from Leah and Mira who I could hear engaging their own on the flanks.

I glanced left.

Lia was in the air, golden flame wings keeping her elevated, and she was attacking in tight controlled bursts, her orc swinging upward to try to reach her and missing repeatedly. She was not going for the kill yet, just keeping it occupied and building damage.

I glanced right.

Mira was on the ground and moving like water, her orc’s mace hitting nothing but floor while she worked around its legs, her lightning claws finding the ankles and knees in quick passes that buckled it without stopping it.

Good. Both of them safe.

I looked back at mine and it swung low, catching me across the thigh with a glancing hit that sent me sideways. Not enough to drop me but enough to remind me what happened when I stopped paying attention.

I came back in.

Black lightning coated the blade this time instead of flames, and I drove it into the orc’s shoulder at the joint, the electricity spreading through the muscle and seizing it, the arm dropping involuntarily for the half second I needed.

I went under its guard.

The sword went through its chest directly into the center of it, as deep as the blade would go, and I activated Dragon Flames through the hilt, the fire traveling down the blade and finding the heart before the orc could process what had happened inside it.

I felt it stop.

The orc looked down.

Then it looked at me.

Then it went down, slowly, heavily, the way things went down when the thing keeping them up stopped working, and the floor shook once when it hit.

[150 EXP Gained]

[15 SP Gained]

I pulled the blade free and looked across the corridor.

Mira had her orc on its knees, lightning punches having done significant structural damage to its legs, and Lia dropped from above with both hands pressed together, a concentrated column of golden flame driving straight through the top of its skull.

It did not get back up.

I thought it was all over and we could forge ahead, when suddenly a sonic blast ripped through the air, it moved fast and deatructive, slamming into me and everyone, the force so powerful that it threw us all back.

I saw Leah in the air and reached out to grab her, I wrapped my hand around her to ensure she was safe, I slammed hard into a wall, coughing out a bit of blood. My eyes were locked at where the attack had come from, waiting for what was there.